Emma Elizabeth Chiampou

Emma Chiampou grew up the youngest of three children in Buffalo, New York. She attended Loyola University in Maryland where she graduated with a major in Communications, specializing in Advertising and a minor in Marketing. Upon graduation, Emma moved back to Buffalo, where she spent the year working as a corporate paralegal. The following fall she moved to Pennsylvania and attended Villanova University School of Law. As a law student, Emma participated in Villanova's Study Abroad Program in Rome, Italy, where she studied international law. During her time in Rome, Emma learned of microfinance and its effort to build sustainable economies in impoverished nations. The legal aspects of microfinance piqued her interested and she decided to research the area further.

After discovering the many benefits of microfinance, she found a program that could coordinate a microfinance externship for her in Peru. From here, Emma, and a Dean at Villanova, set about creating a program that met ABA standards and permitted her to graduate from Villanova on schedule. The Villanova faculty approved of the program in July and Emma left for Peru in August. She spent five months working as a legal extern at Promypes, a small microfinance organization in the Andes. During her time at Promypes she developed her proficiency in Spanish and learned Peruvian banking and securities laws. She then applied these laws to modify Promypes' legal contracts and documents to ensure legal compliance and protect Promypes and its clients. She also used her background in Communications and Marketing to develop a business strategy to improve Promypes' profitability and client base. Upon her return to the United States, Emma wrote a paper analyzing the legal implications of microfinance in Latin America based on both her experience and published works. After graduating from Villanova in 2010, Emma took both the PA and NJ bar examinations. She is now an associate at Krasno, Krasno, and Onwudinjo Law Offices in Philadelphia; her focus is social security and worker's compensation law.